Which first season characters will return for Game of Thrones season three? Adam McKay's long-simmering adaptation of The Boys gets a new lease on life. Plus the directors of ParaNorman explain why this is a live-action spin on stop-motion!

Spoilers from here on out!

Top image from Game of Thrones.

The Avengers 2

Disney and Marvel have now confirmed that the next Avengers movie is coming out on May 1, 2015. Other than Joss Whedon returning to write and direct the film, the studios haven't confirmed anything else — even that title is just a placeholder for whatever they end up going with — and we still don't have confirmation on the exact lineup for the sequel, though you can probably assume all the superheroes from the first movie will indeed be back. [Coming Soon]

Speaking of the team's lineup... well, honestly, I don't even know where to start with this one. The short version is that Vin Diesel or Vin Diesel's people have started a rumor that he is either campaigning or being considered to play the android superhero Vision. This comes from a couple new photos posted to his Facebook page — which has been the main locus of activity for updates on the third Riddick film, so it's at least occasionally a source of legitimate information — and these photos happened to be drawings of the Vision. Then another photo went up, this one of Diesel with the caption "True Vision" on it. So, yeah, it's entirely possible that Vin Diesel is campaigning to play the Vision now, because that just seems like the sort of thing Vin Diesel might get up to. But I'm having a hard time believing anyone at Disney or Marvel — especially Joss Whedon, who likely would have quite a lot of say on matters like this — is really thinking much about this. [Comic Book]

The Wolverine

Svetlana Khodchenkova, who played Tom Hardy's Soviet love interest in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, has now officially signed on to play the Viper, who is sometimes Wolverine's love interest, sometimes a villain, and sometimes both. Also, here's an official synopsis:

Based on the celebrated comic book arc, THE WOLVERINE finds Logan, the eternal warrior and outsider, in Japan. There, samurai steel will clash with adamantium claw as Logan confronts a mysterious figure from his past in an epic battle that will leave him forever changed.

Robocop

Longtime Without a Trace star Marianne-Jean Baptiste has reportedly joined the cast as Detroit Police Chief Karen Dean. The movie is set to start filming in Toronto next month. [Variety]

Skyfall

Here's the latest video blog entry for the new James Bond movie, this time focused on the film's locations. [Coming Soon]

The Boys

A little while back, Columbia Pictures dropped its planned adaptation of Garth Ennis and Darick Roberson's comic about a superpowered CIA squad that monitors and kills superheroes as necessary. Now, according to Anchorman director Adam McKay, who has been developing the project for years, Paramount has picked up the property and McKay remains involved in the process. So there's still a chance that Simon Pegg will get to complete the circle and play Hughie Campbell, even if Pegg says he's perilously close to aging out of the part. [Comic Book Resources]

ParaNorman

Co-director Chris Butler compares his and partner Sam Fell's new stop-motion ghost story to their previous work:

I love Coraline. For me, it's an entirely different tone. Although they're both creepy movies, Coraline is like a dark, contemporary fairy tale. It deals with the primal fear of having your parents replaced, but it doesn't sweeten it with humor. Coraline had a darkness to her, and I loved that. We were referencing a lot of fun stuff on this, and it was always supposed to be a roller coaster ride. We talked about it as being an episode of Scooby Doo, but directed by Sam Raimi. The movie is always supposed to have an element of fun. It's all the stuff I remember more fondly from things that I thought of as a ride, where you do have equal parts laughs and scares. It was all a part of the genetic makeup of the film from the beginning, that we aren't making a dark fairy tale, but a fun movie.

He also explains why he wanted the movie to feel like it had a live-action scope:

For me, zombies and stop-motion just seems appropriate and cool. Because of a lot of the live-action influences, I never wanted to limit the scope. One of my pet peeves about stop-motion, as much as I adore it, is that it does feel very contained, and that's just by its nature. Over the years you've been constricted by the amount of puppets you have, the sets, and where you can fit your cameras, and that was a big deal for many years. The cameras were big things, so you had to be careful where you stuck them.

I wrote the script as more of a live-action script. Rather than be told I can't do this, I found pretty quickly that LAIKA's point-of-view was to make it bigger. Both of us, right from day one, never felt like we were constrained. We aimed high and wanted to push the boundaries. It's in the script, but also our approach to the design. We went for things that are very difficult to realize in three dimensions. Even our approach to the cinematography and how many locations we had, we included one-off shots, which obviously had to be built by hand. Those are the things that are cut out of animation because they're not economic, but we kept them in. We had crowd scenes, which are a big no-no in animation. Basically, all the rules we were supposed to follow we broke.

There's more at the link, including how they made what really has to be the greatest car chase in stop-motion history. [Film School Rejects]

Resident Evil: Retribution

Paranormal Activity 4

Here's a teaser clip for the latest inevitable addition to this just absurdly lucrative franchise. [Shock Till You Drop]

Breaking Dawn: Part 2

Here's a new batch of promo photos, which offers a completely gratuitous shot of author Stephenie Meyer triumphantly striding through a field. [Movieline]

Fringe

Here's a bunch of set photos from the recent filming at the University of British Columbia. [YVR Shoots]

John Noble has now confirmed that he's back filming after taking ten days off to seek medical treatment for a sleep disorder. Check out the link for more on exactly what happened, but the upshot is that he's doing much better now and Fringe is still on track for its September 28 premiere. [EW]

Game of Thrones

Josef Altin and Luke McEwan will reportedly return this season as Night's Watch members Pyp and Rast after being left back at the Wall all last season. Ian McElhinney, who played the now-dismissed Lord Commander of the Kingsguard Ser Barristan Selmy, is also returning, which ought to be interesting. Two separate reports suggest Kate Dickie and Lino Facioli will be back this season as Lady Lysa and Robin Arryn. Meanwhile, Clive Mantle, who plays Greatjon, will reportedly not appear in this season. [Winter Is Coming]

Once Upon a Time

Here are some set photos. Check out the link for a little extra context. [Van City Filming]

Grimm

Here's plot description for this coming Monday's episode, "The Kiss":

TWO GRIMMS ARE BETTER THAN ONE AS NICK JOINS FORCES WITH HIS MOTHER TO TAKE DOWN HIS GREATEST THREAT YET – JAMES FRAIN, JESSICA TUCK, MIKE DOPUD AND MARY ELIZABETH MASTRANTONIO GUEST-STAR – As Nick (David Giuntoli) and his mother (guest star Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) continue to battle the Mauvais Dentes (guest star Mike Dopud), Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) and Rosalee (Bree Turner) fight against the clock to save Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch). More details are revealed about the source of Juliette's illness, resulting in an epic showdown. Back at the precinct, Hank (Russell Hornsby) senses that something is amiss when Nick lands in hot water with the FBI. Meanwhile, Captain Renard (Sasha Roiz) continues to reveal himself as he deals with his estranged brother (guest star James Frain). Reggie Lee also stars.

And here's the description for episode three, "Bad Moon Rising", which guest stars one of the co-kings of genre TV, Lost and Supernatural heavy Mark Pellegrino:

NICK AND HANK FIND THEMSELVES IN THE MIDDLE OF A DISTURBING FAMILY REUNION WHEN HANK'S OLD FRIEND SEEKS HIS HELP TO FIND HIS MISSING DAUGHTER - MADDIE HASSON, JOHN PYPER-FERGUSON AND MARK PELLEGRINO GUEST-STAR – As Hank (Russell Hornsby) continues to seek help to cope with the inexplicable siting he had, an old friend, Jarold Kempfer (guest star Mark Pellegrino), needs his help when his daughter (guest star Maddie Hasson) goes missing. Nick's (David Giuntoli) expertise as a Grimm comes in to play as he investigates the disturbing motives linked to the disappearance. Silas Weir Mitchell, Bitsie Tulloch, Sasha Roiz, Reggie Lee and Bree Turner also star.

Falling Skies

Here's an extended promo for the season finale, "A More Perfect Union."

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The Vampire Diaries

The Borgias actor David Alpay has reportedly joined the cast for season four as Professor Shane, described as "an attractive and charismatic believer in the occult who has a history with Bonnie Bennett (Katerina Graham) and her family." He will debut in the fourth episode and recur thereafter. [TV Guide]

Beauty and the Beast

Here are some set photos from the current filming in Toronto. [Global News]